Women of Color have a long history in Seattle government. Remember Ruby Chow?

I don’t always agree with Rinck but I appreciate her focus on getting shit done. Let’s hope the newest iteration of the council is effective.

@2 what has she gotten done besides passing more taxes? Maybe we should wait until there is an actual outcome from some of these policies before we say "we proved that progressive governance works". The only thing they've proved so far is the ability of the government to pass massive tax increases and underdeliver on the results (that is if anything gets done at all).

You know, it isn’t “significant to acknowledge we have the first Black woman council president.”

As she said, we’ve had black presidents and we’ve had female presidents. This isn’t new, it’s tallies on the racial/minority scorecard, which is the main fight some “progressives” appear to favor over governance. At some point, we have to care more about the tasks at hand than the multi-minority statuses those people claim. At some point, the elected person’s race shouldn’t matter. Also, a leader’s race or gender is a great way to alienate anyone not of that race or gender. Not saying it’s wrong, per se, just explaining its effect and the challenges it introduces to governing.

We celebrate minority participation more than good governance. And as long as we’re focusing on race and other ways we’re different, we’re not coming together as one people to solve the challenges we all face. And we get shitty one sided policies that don’t work as a result.

@4: Very well said.

@3 is the concern passing more taxes or passing different taxes? Requiring wealthy people to pay their share doesn't sit well with short-sighted wealthy people and gullible poor people. My recollection is every council candidate supported increased investment in fighting homelessness as well as other priorities. The payroll expense tax saved the last council's budgetary buttocks; the excess compensation tax is for kids with allowances over $1M/year and will also reduce the regressive nature of our tax system. Is it really proof you want before you begin to tackle homelessness and other issues in Seattle? Good grief.